@riley E-ink tablet, FYI.

It has no SIM capability, no camera, though there are a mic and speakers. I keep authenticated apps to an absolute minimum (Pocket is that exception), though I'm thinking of adding email to it. Jitsi meet might be a voice comms option.

TL;DR: excellent for reading, good for Web (use Einkbro: https://github.com/plateaukao/einkbro), quite good for podcasts, notetaking suprisingly good, multiple firmware upgrades over the past 2.5 years, which I consider good support (exceeds any prior Android device). Reasonably un-googled (no Google Play or Google registration), though still Android. Heavy use of F-Droid and Aurora Stores.

More recent releases double onboard storage. I'd still prefer to see ~512 GB (it's cheap). Document management is a major weakness.

I've written a few reviews and reflections mostly at Hacker News. Meta-review linking others: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36965197

From that:

• June 2021: 3 month review: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27521248

• September 2021: Benefits of a large-format e-ink handheld display for reading, and why the main problem with PDFs is actually computer displays generally: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28612615

• October 2021: On battery life: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28745230 TL;DR: "the battery life published by Onxy is best considered "value never to be exceeded". The weeks-long battery longevity is based on about an hour of daily use, presumably with frontlight and radios disabled and minimal page-turning." That said, yes, as an e-book reader the battery life is excellent. Web browsing, by comparison, sucks battery at about 10x the rate.

• November 2021: On display modes and trade-offs of display quality vs. speed. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29260403

• November 2021: On e-ink vs. emissive tablets generally: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29303195

• December 2021: On how an e-book reader fits into my research / reading practices: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29609479

• July 2022: Onyx BOOX vs. Remarkable (and why I'm glad I went with Onyx). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32113312

• March 2023: Review at two years and counting. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35280532

For more on what e-ink delivers vs. tablets generally, see "The Case Against Tablets" (and specifically the long comment with the big table):

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/880e5c403edb013918e1002590d8e506

The Long Comment: https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/880e5c403edb013918e1002590d8e506#956cc690403301391d35002590d8e506

Related topic, E-Ink Design Principles for Web and Applications:

• Persistence is free
• Paints are expensive
• Refreshes are slow
• Colours are very limited or nonexistent
• Line art displays beautifully. Raster images not so much
• Pagination navigation is strongly preferred to scroll
• Graphics are reflective rather than emissive
• Touch / Wacom may exist
• Feature detection capabilities are limited, particularly for HTML/Web (via media queries).

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba8448a5b29e257

@mutkitta

#eink #onyx #boox #OnyxBoox #EinkTablets #Einkbro #Android #FuckAndroid #ebookReaders